MIND SET! By John Naisbitt
Reviewed by Michele Lee
When asked what this is, a good many of us would say, “Why, it must be the silhouette of a hat!” Indeed, that was just what the grown-ups in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic, “The Little Prince”, all thought. But to the boy who drew it, and to the Little Prince, it was clear – it is a drawing of an elephant in a boa.
You see, we approach the world with various mind sets that can limit the way we see things. That is the premise with which John Naisbitt wrote “Mind Set!”. Naisbitt is a man with such a strong sense of exploration that he has been called the global philosopher among futurists. He has had experience in politics (during the tenures of Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson), top management at IBM, and as an entrepreneur.
Naisbitt writes about 11 mindsets that that has helped him create a framework to view the world, and applies them to a couple of trends that he sees happening. These mindsets have also helped him to ‘connect the dots’ better, and see trends and things from the very same ‘dots’ that we see – only that we do not connect them. Allow me to give you a glimpse into this man’s thoughts.
These mindsets allow Naisbitt to come up with some seemingly bold claims that appear to be mostly right. Take
Focus on the score of the game. In the past seven years that Naisbitt has been living in
Understand how powerful it is not to have to be right. Not understanding this mindset often means defending the rightness of your position to death. Sure, we are all culturally programmed to always be right. It is usually about who is right (the parents, the teacher, the boss, the customer), and not what is right. The same thing is happening in the EU. Both the socialists and the conservatives (or the liberals as Europeans will say) cannot agree. Lip service is being paid to economic reforms while the “European social model” is held in such high regard that to do away with it would be heresy and blasphemy. So well, because both positions believe they are right, they are fighting to death to defend their positions – and thus assuring
You don’t get results by solving problems but by exploiting opportunities. I think Naisbitt puts it real well here when he says that “European politics is full of problem solvers”. They constantly try to solve problems by introducing bucketfuls of rules – where else in the world do you have regulations on what makes a chocolate or a banana? I did a paper once on chocolate rules in the EU, and I can vouch that the rules span a couple of pages. In such a restrictive environment, it is extremely difficult for opportunity seekers to bring about change. New EU members like
Well, that was just an extremely brisk walk through one chapter of Naisbitt’s book. There is so much to glean from Naisbitt’s writing. The 11 mindsets he proposes are really so simple and foundational that most of us have ignored them in favour of more complex ideas, various buzzwords and catch phrases. I like that he advocates a return to simplicity, to take a step back and see what really is happening. As a Chinese proverb says, the passer-by sees clearly, but the person who is involved has his vision fogged.
I strongly recommend this book. Even if you are not fully convinced by all his observations, I think you will come away richer for the experience. This well-written book reads easily, with witty and poetic sentences that insist on not tripping up the reader with archaic phrases.